Toddler Science Made Easy

I must have lived a very sheltered childhood because there are so many things that I never did as a child. Having a child of my own, I have been introduced to so many things that I missed out on when I was young. It is as if I am reliving my own childhood vicariously through her. My husband on the other hand has the inside scoop on all sorts of fun stuff that I never heard of, mostly in the form of science experiments. He introduced me to baking soda volcanoes last year & then the other day when I came home from grocery shopping he was working with Mai on another one.

I walked in the door to see my husband & daughter playing with a Cartesian Diver. I am sure many of you have heard of this, but this is one I missed as a child. I must have dozed off during science class that day. It was such a simple concept and I was as fascinated by it as my daughter was.

Cartesian Diver

All you need is a clean soda bottle, water, & a ketchup packet (or in our case a duck sauce packet) Do a float test first on the packet to make sure that it floats.

Fold the packet in half the long way to insert it into the bottle.

Fill the bottle all the way to the top with water & put the cap back on.

Squeeze the sides of the bottle. The little ones will need two hands. Squeeze the bottle & watch the packet sink.

Let go of the bottle & let it float back up.

Mai had so much fun that it inspired a few more experiments.

Salt & Ice Experiment

All you need for this experiment is some ice, salt & food coloring.

On a baking tray, lay out some ice. You can choose to use a large sheet or cubes.

Sprinkle salt on the cubes. The salt will cause the ice to beginning melting where sprinkled.

Squirt different colored food coloring onto the ice & watch as it seeps into the ice and follows the melted tracks. It makes a lovely effect.

We also had some fun experimenting with oil & water this week. For more on our oil & water experiments please check out our latest article in SEEK MAGAZINE.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

The ice cube with the food coloring looks so pretty! We melt ice blocks alot and my kids love ‘rescuing’ whatever they have hidden inside but we’ve never tried the food coloring and salt. I must have fallen asleep in science class too because until your post I’ve never seen the ketchup packet and water thing before!!

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